Foster Wheeler wins Aramco Feed contract

Zug (Switzerland), July 5, 2011

Top construction contractor Foster Wheeler has won a contract from Saudi Aramco for the front-end engineering design (FEED) and project management services for the clean transportation fuels project at its Riyadh refinery.

The company said the Feed scope includes new isomerization, naphtha splitting and sulfur guard-bed units as well as the addition of new equipment, including a diesel hydrotreater reactor, in existing units.

As per the deal, Foster Wheeler Sofcon, an unincorporated consortium between Foster Wheeler’s engineering and construction group and A. Al-Saihati, A. Fattani & O. Al-Othman Consulting Engineering Company, (Sofcon), will work to reduce the sulfur content of gasoline and diesel produced by the refinery to 10 parts per million, and to reduce the level of benzene in gasoline.

The duo will also be responsible for the debottlenecking of the hydrocracker and gas concentration units, and replacement of crude and vacuum distillation tower internals.

Other new facilities include two new tanks, a new pipe rack, instrument air compressor, condensate system, substation, process interface building and workshop.

Foster Wheeler Sofcon will also upgrade the main control and monitoring systems as well as the laboratory facilities.

In a joint statement, Umberto della Sala, interim CEO of Foster Wheeler and Ala’a Fattani, Sofcon president and CEO, said, 'We have been involved in this project from its early stages and are delighted to receive this latest award from Saudi Aramco. Our intention is to execute the Feed in-Kingdom from our offices in Al-Khobar.”

Foster Wheeler said the initial release of work had been included in the company’s first-quarter bookings. The company expects to receive the main release of work in the third quarter.-TradeArabia News Service